After doing two loop-de-loops through New England, we turned and bolted down to Delaware to catch up with Joan's cousin, Joanie. (yes, the almost same name! . . . more on that later) After our visit with Joanie, we headed west through D.C., Charlottesville, and on to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia. In the process, we saw both Mount Vernon and Monticello and visited with our good friends Rodger & Sue. Highlights included:
The ferry from Cape May, NJ directly to Lewes, DE (which we learned is pronounced "Lewis"). After driving thousands of miles, we're always psyched to make progress without driving. :-)
Visiting Delaware, home of Joe Biden and, more importantly, Joanie Vieau - Joanie & Joan (first picture) were born to Harold & Howard (twin brothers, in the second picture) AND they were born in the same month of the same year! The brothers called each other and said, "Hey, guess what I just named our new baby girl?" . . . . Freaky, and yet they have never spent much time together. So, it was really "a hoot" to watch them chat and laugh, and chat and laugh, and chat and laugh. In fact it was rare for Randy to be able to get a word in edgewise! At times, they really seemed like twins. :-) We also fell in love with Joanie's dachshunds -- Will, Angus, and Rosie (left to right). I think that's Will under the blanket there in the 5th picture. He was always very anxious, chewing on his feet and barking and such, but as soon as the blanket came over his head . . . he was all zen! Bam, he'd go right to sleep. (I wish I could do that) Joanie gave us a terrific driving tour of her part of Delaware, including the shoreline near where the Bidens' house is. Neither of us had ever been to Delaware and really fell in love with it. Cute towns, lovely people, beautiful scenery. But when we got the car back to Joanie's house, we switched to her golf car and got the full tour of her "mobile home" community. Of course, none of them are all that mobile. They're really just easy to build, roomy, and good looking housing. Delaware seems to be absolutely booming. We've honestly never ever seen so many housing developments being built. As a result, these mobile home communities are becoming increasingly critical affordable housing for the long time Delaware residents. Joanie knew and waved at everyone we saw on the golf cart tour. "Hi there." "How's the back?" "When can I come by?" "Do you need _____?" It was like getting a tour from the mayor! To be honest, Joanie's really a whirling dervish of community activity and that's what's created her connections to everyone. To fill her days, she volunteers at a pig farm. From there, she takes unused donated "good" food (pigs prefer spoiled food) and distributes it to her neighbors who need it. She walks people's dogs and looks in on them when they're not feeling well. She's also been a health coach, a nanny, and a volunteer grief counselor. Now she wants to start a collective to teach people how to eat healthier.
Joanie is literally all over the place and is one of the sweetest, most frugal, most active people and absolutely amazing role model that we've ever met. We can't wait to come back again one day!
Oh, and Joanie also has this cool vibrating plate exercise machine that we got to try. The most dorky video is Randy's, but when you hear Joan's cackle in the background you'll have an idea of how much fun we were having. :-)
Visiting Washington D.C. and our friends Rodger & Sue - The last time we had seen these two was probably at our wedding, 27 years ago! They have an exquisite house just outside of D.C. which they graciously opened to us. Rodger with years on the hill and doing environmental work and Sue with years in the Labor department are absolutely chock-a-block full of interesting stories, thoughtful questions, and informed opinions. Conversations with them could (and did) make hours seem like minutes! In addition, they have years and years of amazing art from all over the world (especially from Rodger's long time working on conservation in Africa), but the one piece that Randy loved the most was three stuffed animal pigeons under a glass coffee table. Click on that picture to expand it and see if you agree. :-) We also spent an afternoon at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria (at Sue's suggestion) and we especially liked the message artfully installed on the waterfront in front of the building. :-)
Visiting Mount Vernon . . . a decent tour + one great moment at the enslaved peoples memorial: Another half day we spent at Mt Vernon is an amazing building that thousands of people tour each year. They do a good job of explaining the interesting parts of the building, but are still working on the historical picture of Washington as a person. The enslaved people on whom the estate was built and run play an important part of the story, but the picture presented is still very concrete. ("In this room, Washington did X and the servants were responsible for Y.") The social, emotional, and moral dimensions of the man and the enslaved people who ran the estate didn't come across as well as they could have. It wasn't until we wandered into the enslaved people's graveyard that their story came to life. When these unmarked graves were discovered in 1929 the Mount Vernon Ladies Association put in a marker, but the site received little other attention until it was, well, rediscovered in 1982 and the more recent memorial was built a year later. Unfortunately, it still doesn't seem positioned as an essential part of the Mt Vernon experience and took a little work to find. When we stumbled on it though it was the clear highlight of the tour. First, the monument, designed by Howard students, is simple and beautiful. Second, there are rectangles laid out on the ground with simple string nailed into the ground (pictures 2, 3, & 4), symbolizing the individual gravesites. Most poignantly though, an elementary school class had visited and left painted rocks, like makeshift headstones for the graves and for the many many enslaved people buried there. Those images are what we'll remember the most from Mt. Vernon.
Visiting Monticello: Even better. TWO terrific tours: By contrast, the tours at Jefferson's home, Monticello, are longer and given by guides with a deep knowledge of both Jefferson and the lives of the enslaved peoples who worked his estate. In addition what you could call the "Jefferson tour" of the house -- which was quite good -- there's also a completely separate "Sally Hemings tour" which goes into even more detail about her background and her life. The guides will, for example, pause to ask you to consider what emotions must have surrounded a particular moment or to reflect upon the power dynamics between a black, pregnant 16 year old Sally and the 46 year old white, soon to be president. It's profoundly unsettling and moving to realize that as a 16 year old she had the audacity and courage to bargain away her freedom in order to gain freedom for her children. And that Jefferson, despite all his flaws as a man, kept his end of that bargain. We're not historians, but this feels more like what history should look like.
Thought for the day:
From Randy & Joan: Over the last couple months, we've seen many many homes -- friends' homes, presidents' homes, slave homes, 18th century farmer homes, and so on and so on. We've also parked our van and made our own home in more places than we could have imagined when we began. Each gave us images that will stick with us -- the fog at Walmart, the beanie babies at Cracker Barrel, the sunset at the beach in Rhode Island or the broken tiles from an abandoned factory site in Knoxville. But the thought that we can't quite get out of our head has to do with what they all have in common. . . . . "Home". What it means. What it holds and what it doesn't. Where it sits. . . . As a country we celebrate our presidents' homes (We assume) because they remind us of the men they were. And we found ourselves particularly glad that Monticello has found a way to see the building as just a starting point in the effort to paint a more complete and nuanced portrait of Jefferson -- the good and the bad, the clever and the immoral. But buildings (and parking spaces) also remind us of the idea of home. Did Sally Hemings' children consider Monticello their home? It's hard to imagine, but just as the physical place doesn't tell us all we need to know about the man, neither does building make the home. It's a bit cliche' of course, but there's truth in all cliche'. It's the people who make a place special. Rodger & Sue's lovely home would have been just as special to us if it had been in a studio apartment. And we're very thankful especially to Joanie Vieau for making this point in spades. She opened her huge heart and her very special home to us. It wasn't as spectacular as Mount Vernon. It was way better.
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